Transcript of Media Availability With Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales |
WASHINGTON, March 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Transcript of media
availability with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales:
2:20 P.M. EDT
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Let me give you some core principles, some
things that I believe in. One, I believe in the independence of our U.S.
Attorneys. They are the face of the Department. They are my representative
in the community. I acknowledge their sacrifice. I acknowledge their
courage to step into the arena on behalf of the American people.
Secondly, the Attorney General, all political appointees, such as U.S.
Attorneys, serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.
Third, I believe fundamentally in the constitutional role of the Senate
in advice and consent with respect to U.S. Attorneys and would, in no way,
support an effort to circumvent that constitutional role.
I believe in accountability. Like every CEO of every major
organization, I am responsible for what happens at the Department of
Justice. I acknowledge that mistakes were made here. I accept that
responsibility and my pledge to the American people is to find out what
went wrong here, to assess accountability, and to make improvements so that
the mistakes in this instance do not occur again in the future.
Finally, let me just say one thing: I've overcome a lot of obstacles in
my life to become Attorney General. I am here not because I give up. I am
here because I've learned from my mistakes, because I accept
responsibility, and because I am committed to doing my job. And that is
what I intend to do here on behalf of the American people.
With that I'll take your questions.
QUESTION: Mr. Attorney General, can you explain what the White House
role is specifically when your successor, Harriet Miers, suggested that
perhaps all U.S. attorneys should be changed over. Is that the seed that
started all of this? How does that connect to the actual termination of --
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: As we can all imagine in an organization of
110,000 people, I am not aware of every bit of information that passes
through the halls of the Department of Justice, nor am I aware of all
decisions. As a general matter, some two years ago, I was made aware of a
request from the White House as to the possibility of replacing all the
United States Attorneys. That was immediately rejected by me. I felt that
that was a bad idea and it was disruptive.
QUESTION: (Off mic.)
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: What I know is that there began a process of
evaluating strong performers, not-as-strong performers, and weak
performers. And so far as I knew my chief of staff was involved in the
process of determining who were the weak performers. Where were the
districts around the country where we could do better for the people in
that district, and that's what I knew. But again, with respect to this
whole process, like every CEO, I am ultimately accountable and responsible
for what happens within the department. But that is in essence what I knew
about the process; was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved
in any discussions about what was going on. That's basically what I knew as
the Attorney General.
QUESTION: Were there any discussions between you and the White House
regarding you stepping down or Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
stepping down, and with regard to the Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, is he
still here at the Justice Department working?
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Kyle Sampson has resigned. I accepted his
resignation yesterday as chief of staff. As a technical matter he is still
at the department as he transitions out and looks for other employment.
With respect to the first part of your question, I work for the
American people. I serve with the pleasure of the President of the United
States. I will say in doing my job it is easier to have the confidence of
members of the Congress and I will continue to do the very best that I can
to maintain that confidence and that's what I intend to do: continue to do
my job on behalf of the American people, ascertain what happened here, and
assess accountability and take corrective actions.
Obviously I am concerned about the fact that information, incomplete
information, was communicated or may have been communicated to the
Congress. I believe very strongly in our obligation to ensure that when we
provide information to the Congress, it is accurate and that it is complete
and I am very dismayed that that may not have occurred here.
QUESTION: How could your chief of staff be working closely with the
President on which U.S. attorneys to be let go and you not know the
specifics?
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well, again, as -- I accept responsibility
for everything that happens here within this department. But when you have
110,000 people working in the department obviously there are going to be
decisions that I'm not aware of in real time. Many decisions are delegated.
We have people who were confirmed by the Senate who, by statute, have been
delegated authority to make decisions.
Mr. Sampson was charged with directing the process to ascertain who
were weak performers, where we could do better in districts around the
country. That is a responsibility that he had during the transition. We
worked with respect to U.S. attorneys and presidential personnel at the
White House. That was the role that he had when he was in the counsel's
office. That was the role that he had when he was at the Department of
Justice under General Ashcroft and so naturally when questions came up with
respect to the evaluation of performances of U.S. Attorneys it would be
Kyle Sampson who would drive that effort.
Yes, ma'am?
QUESTION: With all due respect, your -- the sense of being a CEO sounds
a little bit like Ken Lay, that he was so detached from the day to day
operations. How can you make that statement given the fact that you spend
an enormous time at the White House and your chief of staff reports to you
and spends, you know, all day with you?
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Again, I accept responsibility for what
happened here and I regret the fact that information was inadequately
shared with individuals within the department of Justice and that
consequently
information was shared with the Congress that was incomplete. But the
charge for the chief of staff here was to drive this process and the
mistake that occurred here was that information that he had was not shared
with individuals within the department who was then going to be providing
testimony and information to the Congress.
QUESTION: (Off mic.)
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: I just described for Pete the extent of my
-- of the knowledge that I had about the process. I never saw documents. We
never had a discussion about where things stood. What I knew was that there
was ongoing effort that was led by Mr. Sampson, vetted through the
Department of Justice, to ascertain where we could make improvements in
U.S. attorney performances around the country.
Yes?
QUESTION: -- information. What mistakes were made at the Department of
Justice and specifically was there a mistake made in in considering the
political performance of U.S. attorneys in evaluating them:
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well let me just say that one of the things
that we discovered that we do not have, in my judgment, an adequate system
of communication with our U.S. Attorneys around the country. When these
U.S. Attorneys were advised that changes were going to be made, quite
frankly they should have been told why those changes were being made, and I
regret that that didn't happen. That should have happened in this
particular case.
Yes?
QUESTION: -- Mr. Sampson drew up his list and are you now feeling like
maybe they were removed without cause and that maybe it was an unfair
removal since you were not aware of -- you're saying now you were not aware
of the details of why he drew up this list?
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: I stand by the decision. Again, all
political appointees can be removed by the President of the United States
for any reason. I stand by the decision and I think it was the right
decision. Thank you very much.
Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, (202) 514-2007, TDD (202) 514-1888
Web: http://www.USDOJ.GOV
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
back to topRelated links:
CONTACT:
U.S. Department of Justice, +1-202-514-2007,
TDD, +1-202-514-1888
